The Jose VilsonIt's not about a salary; it's all about reality.2015-08-01T01:42:50+00:00http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3hourly1http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheJoseVilson?format=skinhttp://thejosevilson.comhttp://creativecommons.org/images/public/somerights20.gifTheJoseVilsonhttps://feedburner.google.comOn Ron Thorpe and The Bridge Between Teaching and LeadingJose Vilson2015-07-29T16:20:12-07:00http://thejosevilson.com/?p=14661<p><img width="1111" height="649" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Screen-Shot-2015-07-29-at-5.36.02-PM.png" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="Screen Shot 2015-07-29 at 5.36.02 PM" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" />A few years ago, John Holland and I started this blog called The Future of Teaching [now defunct], dedicated to the themes of the book Teaching2030: What We Must Do &#8230; When we first started in 2009, we wanted a clearer vision for what teacher leadership looks like in our local and national context, not ruffling feathers (!) per se, but tackling the more complex subjects from the book. Something ...
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<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/on-ron-thorpe-and-the-bridge-between-teaching-and-leading/">On Ron Thorpe and The Bridge Between Teaching and Leading</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p><img width="1111" height="649" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Screen-Shot-2015-07-29-at-5.36.02-PM.png" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="Screen Shot 2015-07-29 at 5.36.02 PM" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" /><p>A few years ago, John Holland and I started this blog called <em>The Future of Teaching </em>[<em>now defunct</em>], dedicated to the themes of the book <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-2030-Students-Public-Schools-Now/dp/0807751545">Teaching2030</a>: What We Must Do &#8230; </em>When we first started in 2009, we wanted a clearer vision for what teacher leadership looks like in our local and national context, not ruffling feathers (!) per se, but tackling the more complex subjects from the book.</p>
<p>Something changed around 2011.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not sure whether it was because we gained notoriety with people we considered frenemies, or because we called out a whole host of organizations for not seeing teachers in the future of education, but we noticed how people responded to our candid calls for bridging the gap between those who teach and those who lead. So <a href="http://teachingquality.org/content/blogs/john-holland/what-new-ceo-nbpts-ron-thorpe-should-know-and-be-able-do">when John Holland posted this</a>, I was like &#8220;Oh I see you.&#8221; The frustration with the National Board of Professional Learning Standards (NBPTS) was palpable with all of my National Board friends. We needed the best and brightest teachers at the forefront of discussing education reform, and many felt like NBPTS as an organization was working counter to that goal.</p>
<p>Still, how do you call out a man who had two hugely successful teaching conferences in New York City (WNET&#8217;s Celebration of Teaching and Learning) and hadn&#8217;t even started his first official day as president of the NBPTS? But it wasn&#8217;t just a regular guy. It was <a href="http://www.teachingquality.org/content/blogs/barnett-berry/ron-thorpe-and-future-nbpts">Ron Thorpe (full comment in the link)</a>:</p>
<p><span id="more-14661"></span></p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Since you have sent your thoughts in an open letter to me, I hope you don&#8217;t mind if I respond similarly. First of all, THANK YOU for writing what you did. The mere fact that you value such communication and took the time to fashion such a thoughtful set of observations is exactly what I&#8217;m hoping to find many times over &#8212; maybe 91,000 times over! &#8212; among National Board Certified Teachers. [&#8230;]
<p>Let me end with what I think is your most compelling observation: the need for the National Board to fully exercise its commitment to that third goal of advancing &#8216;other education reforms for the purpose of improving student learning in American schools.&#8217; That is the area that most interests me at the National Board. I am not an &#8220;assessment&#8221; guy, nor am I very well versed in the technical side of what it requires to establish strong and meaningful standards. What I care about most is using that foundation &#8212; which is so well established by the NBPTS over the last 25 years &#8212; and using it to forge the profession teaching truly deserves to be. Much of that knowledge &#8212; and almost all of the muscle &#8212; will come from those teachers who have pursued Board Certification and who continue to set the bar not only around what teachers should know and be able to do, but around how teachers behave as professionals. The culture of K-12 education is inextricably linked to the culture of the individuals who lead classrooms and who create the environment in which learning takes place. Among U.S. teachers today, fewer than 3% are National Board Certified. They have a powerful voice that needs to be heard, and they are making a profound difference in the profession, but their numbers are still too small. 3 to 100 are pretty long odds, even when the 3 are the best of the best. We need to change that balance, and we need to find ways to support teachers who want to take up the challenge. [&#8230;]
<p>I thank you, John, for your open letter and your dedication to teaching and learning. I also thank you for your disenchantment. As I lead the National Board into its second quarter-century, I need to know what we must do better, where the new opportunities are, and who the people are who care enough to expect NBPTS to stand for more than a credential. In that regard, I realize that I have much in common with the teachers the National Board was created to serve. And I am honored to be share in the work.</p>
<p>Ron Thorpe<br />
Not yet, but soon to be the new President and CEO of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>After that, I sat there staring at my computer screen like, &#8220;What did we do?&#8221; John must have been thinking the same thing. I thought we got ourselves in trouble by being so direct, but the opposite was true instead.</p>
<p>It was the first time a leader of a major education organization had responded to a blog we wrote directly in the comment box, contrary to the passive-aggressive and pernicious nature of second-handed e-mails. When we called out the New York Times, for example, they responded by opening 40 tickets for teachers to go and eventually putting up a teacher as a panelist (and refused to invite me of course). Mr. Thorpe, on the other hand, took his time at 5:39pm on a Friday, no less, to carefully lay out his new vision for NBPTS on John&#8217;s blog.</p>
<p>Even without much classroom experience, Ron was a thoughtful and affirmative education leader, who envisioned something better than the current direction education reform is going. He empowered many of my teacher friends who work in teacher leadership to speak up in ways they didn&#8217;t feel they had before. In a space full of movers and shakers, many of them disingenuous about their motives for getting into education, Ron Thorpe stood out early and often for the passion he had for this work and the empathy he had for others.</p>
<p>Four years after that comment, <a href="http://thejosevilson.com/up-next/">I got to go to the conference he built up</a>, a conference I never had access to since I&#8217;m not board certified (yet). Throughout the conference, you almost got the sense that his work, while magnificent, was far from over.</p>
<p>And <a href="http://www.nbpts.org/remembering-ron-thorpe">now that he&#8217;s passed on</a>, he&#8217;s probably listening from wherever he is, thinking about he&#8217;s gonna say next. We&#8217;re all listening intently.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.p21.org/news-events/p21blog/1696-a-tribute-to-ron-thorpe">photo c/o</a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/on-ron-thorpe-and-the-bridge-between-teaching-and-leading/">On Ron Thorpe and The Bridge Between Teaching and Leading</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheJoseVilson/~4/Kp3caIm0fpo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://thejosevilson.com/on-ron-thorpe-and-the-bridge-between-teaching-and-leading/feed/5http://thejosevilson.com/on-ron-thorpe-and-the-bridge-between-teaching-and-leading/Get Up Offa That Thing (Summer-Shaming)Jose Vilson2015-07-26T14:02:56-07:00http://thejosevilson.com/?p=14657<p><img width="1260" height="709" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/jamesbrownmrdynamite-1260x709.jpg" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="NEWPORT, RI - JULY 6: Godfather of soul James Brown performs onstage at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 6, 1969 in Newport, Rhode Island. (Photo by Tom Copi/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" />July is the month that teachers get to be teachers without students. I&#8217;ve now been to five cities over the course of the last month, and saw nothing but teachers working on developing themselves as professionals and people. What&#8217;s missing in the debate over extended time in schools and summers in American schools is the lack of time teachers get to spend not worrying about the students in their care. ...
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<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/get-up-offa-that-thing-summer-shaming/">Get Up Offa That Thing (Summer-Shaming)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p><img width="1260" height="709" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/jamesbrownmrdynamite-1260x709.jpg" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="NEWPORT, RI - JULY 6: Godfather of soul James Brown performs onstage at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 6, 1969 in Newport, Rhode Island. (Photo by Tom Copi/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" /><p>July is the month that teachers get to be teachers without students.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve now been to five cities over the course of the last month, and saw nothing but teachers working on developing themselves as professionals and people. What&#8217;s missing in the debate over extended time in schools and summers in American schools is the lack of time teachers get to spend <em>not</em> worrying about the students in their care. Building time into the school week is one thing, having independent time a whole nother. During the school year, meeting with teachers helps because we can address immediate needs and concerns, make adjustments, and decompress for a second before we have to get back on the train that is the school year.</p>
<p>Summer, by sharp contrast, allows us to take a time out from bells, alarms, phone calls, and the hundreds of other internal and external interruptions we face as teachers and get down to business as adults. This summer, I&#8217;ve seen teachers still keep students in mind, but talk about long-term curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, teacher leadership, and all the great stuff that gets piled on our shoulders while we&#8217;re still trying to manage our class load.</p>
<p>Maybe we need to rethink the idea of &#8220;summers off&#8221; as a summer to unpack and refuel.</p>
<p>The United States <a href="http://www.edutopia.org/blog/value-of-a-teachers-time-jose-vilson">already eclipses the rest of the world in time</a> in front of students. We ought to love them (because I know I do), but my time might be better spent if policymakers didn&#8217;t keep trying to force time down our throats. We&#8217;re not babysitters, despite policy evidence to the contrary. So much of our work depends on taking time <em>away</em> from students to be the best teachers possible.</p>
<p>And, if we don&#8217;t actually want to do anything during summer? We shouldn&#8217;t be shamed for that, either. We only have two months to be our full, multilayered, and less responsible selves. To do teaching well does require a <em>super-</em>human effort, so if we&#8217;re just given a chance to beregular humans, we&#8217;re all the better for it come the beginning of the school year.</p>
<p>Summer-shaming is a thing, and I&#8217;d rather not engage in it, because when someone calls me Jose in the middle of a week day, I don&#8217;t have to correct them until at least September.</p>
<p><strong>Jose</strong></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/get-up-offa-that-thing-summer-shaming/">Get Up Offa That Thing (Summer-Shaming)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheJoseVilson/~4/9KQ2vuU1FWU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://thejosevilson.com/get-up-offa-that-thing-summer-shaming/feed/3http://thejosevilson.com/get-up-offa-that-thing-summer-shaming/How I Engage With New Teachers [Gems from the Dirt]Jose Vilson2015-07-20T06:43:30-07:00http://thejosevilson.com/?p=14652<p><img width="526" height="228" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Dirt.jpg" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="Heap dirt. Isolated on white background" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" />I did a lot of listening in the last month, mostly to teachers who just finished their first year of teaching. The sorts of things we veteran teachers complained about when we first started teaching still persist (and in some cases are exacerbated). Some folks felt like their administrators didn&#8217;t listen to their feedback. Others felt their mentors were out to get them, or weren&#8217;t pedagogues who knew what they ...
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<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/how-engage-with-new-teachers-gems-from-dirt/">How I Engage With New Teachers [Gems from the Dirt]</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p><img width="526" height="228" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Dirt.jpg" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="Heap dirt. Isolated on white background" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" /><p>I did a lot of listening in the last month, mostly to teachers who just finished their first year of teaching. The sorts of things we veteran teachers complained about when we first started teaching still persist (and in some cases are exacerbated). Some folks felt like their administrators didn&#8217;t listen to their feedback. Others felt their mentors were out to get them, or weren&#8217;t pedagogues who knew what they were talking about. Some saw that the institutions they were getting degrees from were little more than money-making operations with little grounding in their day-to-day operations. Generally, they felt like they were duped by the institutions that pretended to be friendly to them.</p>
<p>As a teacher who just finished his tenth year of teaching, my first question is: how could I support them in staying, or at least doing the best job possible for the kids in front of them next year?</p>
<p>Everyone bandies teacher attrition statistics about as a filter for their confirmation bias. &#8220;These new teachers are leaving quickly, so ed reform isn&#8217;t working!&#8221; &#8220;These new teachers are staying at this school, so something we&#8217;re doing must be working.&#8221; Yet, the question is rarely, &#8220;How can we support new teachers despite and because of our current education climate?&#8221; What protections are there for the untenured, possibly brilliant, and harangued by the systems around them? How do we create spaces that explicitly invite and engage teachers in constructive, reaffirming dialogue? Why do so many veteran educators and K-12 professors see themselves as above and beyond needing to mentor their younger peers and, yes, listen as actively as they opine?</p>
<p>I have a serious interest in reversing the effects of climate change, and am keenly aware of the deleterious forces that won&#8217;t change their toxic practices, and equally concerned with assuring people with the most need have shelter when the weather goes awry.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s why, when representatives from <a href="http://www.aft.org/">AFT</a> and <a href="https://www.teachforamerica.org/">TFA</a> asked me to engage with them, I said yes without apologies. The AFT space wasn&#8217;t too complicated for me. I&#8217;m a union guy who pays dues to UFT, NYSUT, NEA, and the AFT, and Randi endorsed my book. TFA made me think thrice. After critical conversations with my friends, it felt like <a href="http://thejosevilson.com/take-me-to-church-on-tfa-blacklivesmatter/">the right thing to do</a> specifically because of the work I would engage them in. <a href="http://thejosevilson.com/and-you-may-ask-yourself-well-how-did-i-get-here/">When I spoke on #BlackLivesMatter at the AFT</a>, a few folks walked out immediately, but even more folks waited in line to speak with me because they inferred how voiceless they felt around issues of race. When I spoke to Black and Latino teachers of color just finishing their first years of TFA about the complicated spaces they occupy as people of color and the countercultural pedagogy necessary to move towards equity, they too affirmed the purpose of why we were assembled.</p>
<p>If I made even one teacher feel like she or he could do this work for another year, then I&#8217;ve done what I came to do. Conversely, I&#8217;ll probably be a better teacher from having listened to so many voices of different ages and backgrounds, but with a common thread of wanting to teach kids better.</p>
<p>In the last three months, I&#8217;ve met with politicians <a href="http://thejosevilson.com/stare-them-in-the-eyes-meeting-arne-duncan/">who I&#8217;ve spoken out against on numerous occasions here</a>, <a href="http://thejosevilson.com/the-students-at-the-center-of-your-education-movement/">women who I&#8217;ve battled trolls and union folks over</a> (and lost), and organizations that I haven&#8217;t wanted anything to do with for the last eight years. In each case, I hoped to bring about touchy subjects in the hopes that we would hold folks accountable for their work with children as much as I hold myself to it.</p>
<p>Sometimes, we&#8217;re going to fail miserably, but we get up and into the work because it moves us so. The things I&#8217;ve heard from so many of my colleagues new and old is testament to that. Our flaws are on display daily, and none of the labels make the job any less difficult when young humans we call students are involved. In all the spaces I walked into, the underlying foundation of empathy made me feel like I made purpose there, and for that, I am grateful to have partaken.</p>
<p>I keep finding ways to draw gems from dirt, which is what I do for a living anyways.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/how-engage-with-new-teachers-gems-from-dirt/">How I Engage With New Teachers [Gems from the Dirt]</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheJoseVilson/~4/kACDZlcu7C0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://thejosevilson.com/how-engage-with-new-teachers-gems-from-dirt/feed/3http://thejosevilson.com/how-engage-with-new-teachers-gems-from-dirt/And You May Ask Yourself, “Well, How Did I Get Here?”Jose Vilson2015-07-16T10:23:35-07:00http://thejosevilson.com/?p=14646<p><img width="1024" height="682" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/image.jpg" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="Jose Vilson Speaks at the AFT TEACH 2015" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" />Thanks for your patience. I&#8217;ve been to Atlanta, Washington D.C., and now San Antonio within the span of a week, spreading the &#8220;good word.&#8221; You&#8217;ve elevated me, so now I get to bring the words that usually come from this page to the adults who often need to hear it the most. Consequently, I haven&#8217;t written much. I&#8217;ll be back on the grind very soon. In the meantime, please know ...
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<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/and-you-may-ask-yourself-well-how-did-i-get-here/">And You May Ask Yourself, &#8220;Well, How Did I Get Here?&#8221;</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p><img width="1024" height="682" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/image.jpg" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="Jose Vilson Speaks at the AFT TEACH 2015" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" /><p>Thanks for your patience.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve been to Atlanta, Washington D.C., and now San Antonio within the span of a week, spreading the &#8220;good word.&#8221; You&#8217;ve elevated me, so now I get to bring the words that usually come from this page to the adults who often need to hear it the most. Consequently, I haven&#8217;t written much. I&#8217;ll be back on the grind very soon.</p>
<p>In the meantime, please know that I haven&#8217;t wasted a minute making these here dreams come true. As evidence, I present this video from the American Federation of Teachers&#8217; TEACH 2015 conference. I got to speak on my book <em><a href="http://thejosevilson.com/this-is-not-a-test/">This Is Not A Test</a></em> with the homie Dana Goldstein, writer David Kirp, and writer / rock star Wes Moore. Given the odds, I think I represented teacher voice well:</p>
<p><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='761' height='459' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/Z6ujGiOlnLg?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen='true'></iframe></span></p>
<p>The next morning, Linda Darling-Hammond, after finding out about the panel, said, &#8220;Yes, you definitely belong there.&#8221; Belonging is a big freaking deal. In the meantime, let me know what you&#8217;re up to. Thanks for now and in advance.</p>
<p>Jose</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/and-you-may-ask-yourself-well-how-did-i-get-here/">And You May Ask Yourself, &#8220;Well, How Did I Get Here?&#8221;</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheJoseVilson/~4/DFaP2hux9o0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://thejosevilson.com/and-you-may-ask-yourself-well-how-did-i-get-here/feed/0http://thejosevilson.com/and-you-may-ask-yourself-well-how-did-i-get-here/Fred Klonsky: Institutional Racism Is Alive, And We’re ItJose Vilson2015-07-07T18:20:11-07:00http://thejosevilson.com/?p=14642<p><img width="600" height="448" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/fredklonskyneara15.jpg" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="fredklonskyneara15" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" />As a follow-up to my post about the NEA&#8217;s new business item on institutional racism, here&#8217;s an excerpt from Fred Klonsky&#8217;s post: We white teachers in the AFT and the NEA are not inoculated from the racism that exists in the broader American society. I went back and reread the institutional racism New Business Item in light of the rest of the meeting that followed its adoption. I couldn’t help but ...
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<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/fred-klonsky-institutional-racism-is-alive-and-were-it/">Fred Klonsky: Institutional Racism Is Alive, And We&#8217;re It</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p><img width="600" height="448" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/fredklonskyneara15.jpg" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="fredklonskyneara15" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" /><p>As a follow-up to <a href="http://thejosevilson.com/cant-be-business-as-usual-at-the-nea-a-peek-into-institutional-racism-in-education/">my post about the NEA&#8217;s new business item</a> on institutional racism, <a href="https://preaprez.wordpress.com/2015/07/07/i-have-met-the-institution-and-it-is-us/">here&#8217;s an excerpt from Fred Klonsky&#8217;s post</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>We white teachers in the AFT and the NEA are not inoculated from the racism that exists in the broader American society.</p>
<p>I went back and reread the institutional racism New Business Item in light of the rest of the meeting that followed its adoption.</p>
<p>I couldn’t help but be struck by the fact that the NBI talked about all the institutions in our society except one.</p>
<p>Ours.</p></blockquote>
<p>Only when we as educators can look into the mirror and realize our complicity in the school-to-prison pipeline can we truly be liberated. Yes, I recognize we&#8217;re often hamstrung by mandates from deceptive overlords and wayward mandates from folks who&#8217;ve never been in the classroom. Yet, many of my friends have witnessed institutional racism firsthand, and how the institutions we work in and, sometimes, pay dues to, can be a deterrent from breaking the chains.</p>
<p>This work is complicated. If we&#8217;re not willing to have that conversation, then why work with students? Face the institution in front of you. Start with the one in the mirror. It helps.</p>
<p><a href="https://preaprez.wordpress.com/2015/07/04/the-nea-ra-the-vote-on-institutional-racism-happened-yesterday-the-debate-happened-today/">photo c/o</a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/fred-klonsky-institutional-racism-is-alive-and-were-it/">Fred Klonsky: Institutional Racism Is Alive, And We&#8217;re It</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheJoseVilson/~4/V85Fu929SeM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://thejosevilson.com/fred-klonsky-institutional-racism-is-alive-and-were-it/feed/4http://thejosevilson.com/fred-klonsky-institutional-racism-is-alive-and-were-it/Not Business As Usual at the NEA (A Peek Into Institutional Racism)Jose Vilson2015-07-06T19:23:02-07:00http://thejosevilson.com/?p=14632<p><img width="1260" height="945" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/nearaimg_0614-1260x945.jpg" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="nearaimg_0614" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" />On Friday, the National Education Association&#8217;s Representative Assembly heard the names of the nine Charleston victims. They then attended to New Business Item B, which read in part: We, the members of the National Education Association, acknowledge the existence in our country of institutional racism–the societal patterns and practices that have the net effect of imposing oppressive conditions and denying rights, opportunity, and equality based upon race. This inequity manifests ...
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<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/cant-be-business-as-usual-at-the-nea-a-peek-into-institutional-racism-in-education/">Not Business As Usual at the NEA (A Peek Into Institutional Racism)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p><img width="1260" height="945" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/nearaimg_0614-1260x945.jpg" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="nearaimg_0614" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" /><p>On Friday, the National Education Association&#8217;s Representative Assembly heard the names of the nine Charleston victims. They then attended to <a href="http://ra.nea.org/new-business-item/new-business-item-b/">New Business Item B</a>, which read in part:</p>
<blockquote><p>We, the members of the National Education Association, acknowledge the existence in our country of institutional racism–the societal patterns and practices that have the net effect of imposing oppressive conditions and denying rights, opportunity, and equality based upon race. This inequity manifests itself in our schools and in the conditions our students face in their communities.</p></blockquote>
<p>The rest of the NBI reads like a well-intentioned yet vague plan for what the NEA may or may not do to help teachers, schools, and local chapters on the path towards cultural competency. As proud and thankful as some of us were that the item was voted in unanimously, we also knew the history of working with said members on a daily basis. The sorts of comments we get on and offline for just mentioning the word race would shock the inattentive.</p>
<p>Yet, it still felt odd because institutional racism wasn&#8217;t just the edifices and direct policies that affect people of color, but also the actors within that system that perpetuate it. Thus, <a href="http://www.educolor.org/educolor-statement-on-neas-stand-on-institutional-racism/">EduColor came out with its own statement</a> which also made its way around the web. The work done to move the dialogue from &#8220;We can&#8217;t do this race thing&#8221; to &#8220;We need to pass this bill for the betterment of our organization&#8221; shouldn&#8217;t be overlooked, but we have to recognize that many of our colleagues aren&#8217;t ready to hear that they may be part of the problem, too.</p>
<p><a href="https://preaprez.wordpress.com/2015/07/04/the-nea-ra-the-vote-on-institutional-racism-happened-yesterday-the-debate-happened-today/">Blogger and friend of the program Fred Klonsky reads NBI 11,</a> calling for the removal of the Confederate battle flag and all symbols from public schools and spaces. This NBI came out the day after NBI B, and happened an hour after we released our statement. In some ways, it proved EduColor&#8217;s point, and after an hour and a half of debate, pushed the bulk of the other NBIs to the next day.</p>
<p>Of course, I tweet this:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This debate on the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NEARA15?src=hash">#NEARA15</a> floor is the definition of institutional racism. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/educolor?src=hash">#educolor</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Jose Vilson (@TheJLV) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheJLV/status/617412000386281472">July 4, 2015</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p><a href="http://ra.nea.org/new-business-item/new-business-item-11/">It passed, but amended</a>, so only the removal of the battle flag makes it. So the flag stays, but General Lee and the other clandestine KKK members&#8217; names stick on schools, and the <a href="http://genius.com/Nina-simone-strange-fruit-lyrics">&#8220;strange fruit&#8221; of the past</a> are now the students in those schools. Educators proceed by comparing, not contrasting, what Fred did with what Bree Newsome did in taking down the Confederate flag at the South Carolina state house in words and inappropriate graphics. I was secretly happy that the bill came from someone who also had no risk involved in putting a racial issue on the floor.</p>
<p>As Fred and I both said on Facebook said later on, the NEA RA can&#8217;t be business as usual.</p>
<p>NBI 17 calls for more resources to address historical inaccuracies about the Civil War and Reconstruction Period. <a href="http://ra.nea.org/new-business-item/new-business-item-17/">This passes</a> with about a 10K price tag. <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/what-this-cruel-war-was-over/396482/">Ta-Nehisi Coates seemed to do this at a smaller price tag</a>, but the sort of reconstruction needed to re-teach social studies teachers in developing critical history thinkers might be more than 10k.</p>
<p>NBI 94 calls for a boycott of racist (specifically towards Native Americans) mascots, including but not limited to Redskins. <a href="http://ra.nea.org/new-business-item/new-business-item-94/">This is defeated</a>. Mascots like a Redskin or Robert E. Lee are symbolic renditions of institutional racism, but it took only two days for voters to forget that.</p>
<p>NBI 122 calls for support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and for examining concepts of justice within classrooms, a presumed corrolary to NBI B. <a href="http://ra.nea.org/new-business-item/new-business-item-122/">The measure passes</a>, which sounds great except only $2K is dedicated to this effort, and the measure only includes young black men as the victims of police crime. Alicia Garza and Patrice Cullors, two black women, created Black Lives Matter. Obvious disconnect.</p>
<p>In our statement, EduColor intentionally said we wanted to make sure people voted for the NBI on institutional racism with good intentions, and not because they didn&#8217;t want to appear racist after mourning / being shamed into recognizing the nine Charleston victims. I&#8217;m not of the opinion that all teachers are racist, absurd on its face. I am of the opinion that we all have more work to do before we reduce the effects of the school to prison pipeline, increase achievement for students of color, and create equitable systems for dealing with cultural issues that all of our students deal with on a daily basis.</p>
<p>More importantly, we hope the work can move forward for all of us who truly believe in social justice, not just parrot the cool kids who mobilize around it. People have found ways to profit off our current protest movement, and, with a lens so hot on the issue, it seems worth it lest you lose relevance. The NEA RA managed to introduce and pass some bills in session that I wouldn&#8217;t have thought possible even a few months ago, but the struggle to assure that these bills made it across felt strained in ways. If we&#8217;re really about moving forward, let&#8217;s make this a core value of what we do.</p>
<p>We can&#8217;t have business as usual. This I believe.</p>
<p><a href="https://preaprez.wordpress.com/2010/07/04/nea-ra-sunday-morning-good-job-arne/">c/o Fred&#8217;s blog</a></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/cant-be-business-as-usual-at-the-nea-a-peek-into-institutional-racism-in-education/">Not Business As Usual at the NEA (A Peek Into Institutional Racism)</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheJoseVilson/~4/6irIhWfSAuM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://thejosevilson.com/cant-be-business-as-usual-at-the-nea-a-peek-into-institutional-racism-in-education/feed/5http://thejosevilson.com/cant-be-business-as-usual-at-the-nea-a-peek-into-institutional-racism-in-education/The Students at the Center of Your Education MovementJose Vilson2015-07-02T18:48:05-07:00http://thejosevilson.com/?p=14628<p><img width="420" height="294" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/wutangisforthekiddies.png" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="wutangisforthekiddies" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" />I recently had the pleasure of having brunch with a set of folks whose social justice work I love and respect, one of whom was eventually fired for teaching social justice. I normally start by just listening to folks before I turn up my volume. This time, since pancakes and eggs were on the menu, I figured I&#8217;d start by talking us into a comfortable space. At some point, the ...
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<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/the-students-at-the-center-of-your-education-movement/">The Students at the Center of Your Education Movement</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p><img width="420" height="294" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/wutangisforthekiddies.png" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="wutangisforthekiddies" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" /><p>I recently had the pleasure of having brunch with a set of folks whose social justice work I love and respect, <a href="http://thejosevilson.com/of-challenge-and-controversy-why-i-support-marylin-zuniga/">one of whom was eventually fired for teaching social justice</a>. I normally start by just listening to folks before I turn up my volume. This time, since pancakes and eggs were on the menu, I figured I&#8217;d start by talking us into a comfortable space. At some point, the conversation turned to racism in education, and <em>the</em> case that brought us together. As they took turns talking about what happened on the ground, I sat there wanting to ask the questions that burned at me for months about her, about the board, about the police, about everything.</p>
<p>Then she broke out a video of her kids and I shut it all up.</p>
<p>I usually have a handful of hints I look for when anyone calls themselves activists / thought leaders / experts in education, but the one that always sticks out revolves the kids. How they speak of the children matters more than any other factor. It&#8217;s not the awards, the qualifications, the degrees, the conference keynotes, the years spent in the classroom (to a certain extent), or even political leanings. It&#8217;s about how they speak of the young people they serve.</p>
<p>Do they talk only about a couple of students or do they speak about all of their students warmly? Do they not speak of students at all or speak about them in absolute hypotheticals? Are they interested in how their children live or is the allotted time period enough? Are they ever hard on themselves, or at least reflective about the faults they embody as teachers? Do the students reflect love to these adults back?</p>
<p>What&#8217;s that energy like?</p>
<p>The short video of the kids yelling, excited that she&#8217;d come back for the brief moment she went to pick up her stuff, moved me in ways I didn&#8217;t admit at the time. Around the table, the educators had stories upon gruesome stories to share of the racial inequity our students, parents and conscious educators face from unconscious administrators, police officers, colleagues, parents, all of whom refuse to know better. Even though we each had our different elements to share, <a href="https://theeducationactivist.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/local-jail/">the root was racism</a>, inescapable, ubiquitous, palpable in the work we do.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s so telling when people start an initiative and don&#8217;t mention students ever in their works, or they work with kids and never actually talk about them in a loving way. This is a sort of exclusion I can endorse: if students aren&#8217;t truly at the center of the work, then what exactly are these folks here for?</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/the-students-at-the-center-of-your-education-movement/">The Students at the Center of Your Education Movement</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheJoseVilson/~4/bfJAadfjC-Q" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://thejosevilson.com/the-students-at-the-center-of-your-education-movement/feed/2http://thejosevilson.com/the-students-at-the-center-of-your-education-movement/For Us, By Us: 5 Tips for An Authentic Educator VoiceJose Vilson2015-06-30T18:11:56-07:00http://thejosevilson.com/?p=14619<p><img width="630" height="607" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Screen-Shot-2013-01-04-at-11.11.36-PM.png" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="Jose Vilson, TEDXNYED 2012" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" />How do you write with an educator voice? Here are five tips for writing.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/for-us-by-us-5-tips-for-an-authentic-educator-voice/">For Us, By Us: 5 Tips for An Authentic Educator Voice</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p><img width="630" height="607" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Screen-Shot-2013-01-04-at-11.11.36-PM.png" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="Jose Vilson, TEDXNYED 2012" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" /><p>Someone on Twitter asked me what advice I have for blog writing as a teacher. I replied quickly:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" width="550"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Read a ton of blogs first. Whittle down. Write when you want. Things work themselves out from there. <a href="https://t.co/e0aM1I0vdT">https://t.co/e0aM1I0vdT</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Jose Vilson (@TheJLV) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheJLV/status/615135614481076225">June 28, 2015</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>But there&#8217;s more than that. In an age where education overlords explicitly tell corporate- and government-friendly educators to <em>not</em> speak about the conversations you often see here on this blog. Race, class, gender, intersectionality, and other uncomfortable topics sit in the corner while more profitable topics like 1-to-1 laptop classrooms, grit, and whatever new-fangled edu-tool was tossed to them at a tech exhibit. Equally potent is the teacher activist circles where tweets about Common Core, assessment, and Bill Gates. It&#8217;s fun to quote [insert favorite edu-pundit here], but after a while, you wonder whether the breadth of educational experiences ever enters their vernacular or if they too are hyped up at the chance of growing a few thousand followers on a social media platform.</p>
<p>Which brings us to this list. Here&#8217;s a set of 5 tips I keep in my back pocket that have helped me get to where I am as a full-time classroom teacher / advocate. Hope it helps you find your educator voice:</p>
<h4>1. <strong>Read All Of The Blogs</strong></h4>
<p>This might seem impossible because it damn near is. Some folks are quick to point out that everybody writes blogs but nobody reads. I contend that people <em>do</em> read blogs, but folks like me have become discerning about what we read. If you&#8217;re just starting though, you want to read a thick set of blogs that span the dialogues. You&#8217;ll want <a href="http://practicaltheory.org/blog">Chris Lehmann&#8217;s</a>, <a href="http://rafranzdavis.com" target="_blank">Rafranz Davis&#8217;</a>, <a href="http://www.teachingquality.org/blogs/ReneeMoore" target="_blank">Renee Moore&#8217;s</a>, and <a href="http://christinatorres.org/" target="_blank">Christina Torres&#8217;</a> blogs on your list since they have educator perspectives. I&#8217;ll also add in <a href="http://hackeducation.com" target="_blank">Audrey Watters</a>, <a href="http://ghostwritings.net" target="_blank">Melinda Anderson</a>, <a href="http://nyceducator.com" target="_blank">NYC Educator</a>, <a href="http://edushyster.com" target="_blank">EduShyster</a>, <a href="http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Curmudgucation,</a> and <a href="http://blog.mrmeyer.com/" target="_blank">Dan Meyer</a> because they can actually <em>write</em>.</p>
<p>(I have a lot more, but these are just ten that come to mind. Do add a few more in the comments, please.)</p>
<h4>2. Hone Your Style</h4>
<p>Feel free to emulate styles until you find your own. This goes along the lines of <a href="http://thejosevilson.com/steal-like-a-teacher-thoughts-on-austin-kleons-creativity/">Austin Kleon&#8217;s rendition of stealing like an artist</a>. [You&#8217;ll want to read that blog post and the book, too. See? All of the things.] Akin to a rookie teacher visiting every teacher in their department and incorporating the moves they saw into their repertoire, writers read a lot so they can eventually hone their style. It&#8217;s going to take a few months (check #3), but eventually when you find that voice, everyone will be able to tell who you are without even reading the title. That&#8217;s a voice.</p>
<h4>3. Write A Ton</h4>
<p>The more you write intentionally, the better. If you only write once a week, it&#8217;s harder to find your voice. If you write three or four times a week, then you can experiment as much as you like until you find your audience. That&#8217;s critical. If you write on a consistent basis for about six months, you can find your educator voice. Writing a lot doesn&#8217;t mean writing the same thing, either. Oftentimes, people equate writing in volume with writing with purpose. If you&#8217;re not moved to write something down, don&#8217;t, unless you&#8217;re not going to publish it. If you <em>are</em> going to write something on a blog, then respect the reader by holding it until it&#8217;s ready. The idea usually comes to the fore the next day. Writing just to write doesn&#8217;t help in the way that just throwing up basketballs to the hoop doesn&#8217;t help you become a better player. Aim and precision matter, too.</p>
<h4>4. Find Your Boundaries</h4>
<p>Believe it or not, I have boundaries for what I write. I don&#8217;t write about my own administrators and I rarely talk about any one student or colleague specifically (except in my book). Before you can go deep into a topic, you have to consider the items that might be off-limits. Unfortunately, in many school districts, this <em>does</em> include intersectional topics, but if it is this, then &#8230;</p>
<h4>5. Go. In.</h4>
<p>Once you find your boundaries, you&#8217;ll be able to go more in depth with the things you&#8217;re most passionate about. Don&#8217;t be shallow about analyses, either. If you find yourself inclined for any reason to stop short of saying something for any other reason besides #4, then say it. Writing like this tests your mettle. If you need to name names, go for it. As one of the founders of Black Lives Matter told me, this is a perfect time to go for the jugular because politeness has only gotten social justice so far.</p>
<p>The idea isn&#8217;t to write for the sake of shaming or hurting, but to elicit truth in the midst of niceties. What plagues too much of education discourse isn&#8217;t the need for &#8220;better&#8221; conversation. It&#8217;s that soundbites and jargon masquerade as substance too frequently. The greatest writers I&#8217;ve seen don&#8217;t skirt the issue. They swirl around it and come to a finite, central point, spanning the breadth of the topic at hand. Educators deserve a bigger voice, and those of us who can do it ought to exercise those voices.</p>
<p>Oh, and keep students in mind when you write. That&#8217;s what differentiates educator voices from other voices who are just <em>kinda</em> into education.</p>
<p>Hope this was helpful. Do you have an educator voice? What questions do you have about educator voice?</p>
<p><strong>Jose</strong></p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/for-us-by-us-5-tips-for-an-authentic-educator-voice/">For Us, By Us: 5 Tips for An Authentic Educator Voice</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheJoseVilson/~4/tq7rFoekmCs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://thejosevilson.com/for-us-by-us-5-tips-for-an-authentic-educator-voice/feed/3http://thejosevilson.com/for-us-by-us-5-tips-for-an-authentic-educator-voice/Silence Is Violence [EduColor]Jose Vilson2015-06-24T04:49:12-07:00http://thejosevilson.com/?p=14615<p><img width="820" height="490" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Screen-Shot-2015-06-21-at-9.36.03-PM-820x490.png" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="Screen-Shot-2015-06-21-at-9.36.03-PM-820x490" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" />For those of you who&#8217;ve been following, EduColor has built up quite a bit of steam in the last few months. With hundreds of followers on Twitter, Facebook, and our newsletter, we&#8217;re providing a voice that&#8217;s been so necessary out there. As founder, I&#8217;m fortunate to lead our bi-weekly newsletters with a few words. Here&#8217;s an excerpt: Latoya Peterson of Fusion recently said that the silence of our friends is ...
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<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/silence-is-violence-educolor/">Silence Is Violence [EduColor]</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p><img width="820" height="490" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Screen-Shot-2015-06-21-at-9.36.03-PM-820x490.png" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="Screen-Shot-2015-06-21-at-9.36.03-PM-820x490" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" /><p>For those of you who&#8217;ve been following, <a href="http://educolor.org">EduColor</a> has built up quite a bit of steam in the last few months. With hundreds of followers on Twitter, Facebook, and our newsletter, we&#8217;re providing a voice that&#8217;s been so necessary out there. As founder, I&#8217;m fortunate to lead our bi-weekly newsletters with a few words.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.educolor.org/the-silence-of-our-friends-is-violence/">Here&#8217;s an excerpt:</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Latoya Peterson of Fusion recently said that <a href="http://fusion.net/story/152991/the-9-heartbreaks-of-the-charleston-shooting/">the silence of our friends is violence</a>, and nowhere is that truer than the field of K-12 education. Educators can’t refuse the tide of the national zeitgeist. In this issue, we’ve chosen to flip the idea that we only talk about standards, content, and iPad apps. With the recent hate crime (terrorist attack) on Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC, the suicide of Kalief Browder, First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/us/politics/michelle-obamaurges-chicago-graduates-to-transcend-tragedy-of-hadiya-pendletons-death.html?smid=tw-share&amp;_r=1">honoring Hadiya Pendleton</a> at what was supposed to be her graduation, and the silencing and mocking of Black women through the lie that is Rachel Dolezal, it’s important for educators to create safe spaces for their students to share their opinions, not simply impose ours.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.educolor.org/the-silence-of-our-friends-is-violence/">Read the rest here</a> and let me know what you think. Share with all your friends, too. <a href="http://educolor.org">The movement is here</a>.</p>
<p>Jose</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/silence-is-violence-educolor/">Silence Is Violence [EduColor]</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheJoseVilson/~4/8WU642ti7YA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>http://thejosevilson.com/silence-is-violence-educolor/feed/1http://thejosevilson.com/silence-is-violence-educolor/Despite All My RageJose Vilson2015-06-17T19:20:32-07:00http://thejosevilson.com/?p=14610<p><img width="689" height="542" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Screen-Shot-2015-06-17-at-10.14.20-PM.png" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 10.14.20 PM" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" />I normally talk to young adults about math and other academics, but recently, because we&#8217;re winding up the school year, subjects have expanded to Fetty Wap and flicking wrists. The currency for &#8220;young and cool&#8221; changes over time, almost as quickly as we age. Yet, on this day, the subject turned to teachers. They went on to gossip about their favorite and least favorite teachers in the building. For a ...
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<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/despite-all-my-rage/">Despite All My Rage</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p><img width="689" height="542" src="http://thejosevilson.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Screen-Shot-2015-06-17-at-10.14.20-PM.png" class="attachment-entry-fullwidth wp-post-image" alt="Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 10.14.20 PM" style="float:left; margin:0 15px 15px 0;" /><p>I normally talk to young adults about math and other academics, but recently, because we&#8217;re winding up the school year, subjects have expanded to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZbTQ6bAbZA">Fetty Wap</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaFbFP3c6Bg">flicking wrists</a>. The currency for &#8220;young and cool&#8221; changes over time, almost as quickly as we age.</p>
<p>Yet, on this day, the subject turned to teachers. They went on to gossip about their favorite and least favorite teachers in the building. For a moment, I told them, &#8220;Please don&#8217;t talk about me&#8221; because, despite what my readers believe, I <em>really</em> don&#8217;t like talking about myself in person. They shared their views on how difficult teaching must be like, but also that teaching needs to be done by people who care. One in particular almost went into tears sharing her frustrations about one particular educator. Of course, because it was in confidence, I wasn&#8217;t going to mention it to him, but suffice it to say, it humbled me somewhat.</p>
<p>Was I that teacher to someone else? Have I done enough reflection so, should other conversations like this happen, I can be on the right side of these young people&#8217;s litmus test?</p>
<p>Just then, a teacher said, &#8220;I suggested we get rid of him but [the administrators] weren&#8217;t trying to hear it, but at least you&#8217;re set. Teaching has good job security and the kids respect you here.&#8221;</p>
<p>Um what?</p>
<p>&#8220;So let me ask you a question. Do you think that&#8217;s what teaching is about?&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I really don&#8217;t know, and I&#8217;m probably not a good representative to talk about teachers, but that&#8217;s kinda what I see.&#8221;</p>
<p>For a minute, I&#8217;m reminded of the already herculean task of accommodating dozens of minds at a time around a subject that works in multiple brainwaves, some concrete, some abstract. With all the levels we already work in, we also have to partner with our peers, our administrations, and our students&#8217; parents to make sure we&#8217;re meeting our students&#8217; needs. An already hefty task, if not for the multiple mandates set upon us from folks in larger grey offices with big titles, a few more set upon us by general society, and the secret codes some of us live by to keep us in the classroom.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not interested in busting cages. I&#8217;m more interested in why we create cages for teachers to begin with, even some of the ones we&#8217;ve created ourselves.</p>
<p>&#8220;What you might have found out about teachers like me is that job security isn&#8217;t amongst one of my concerns. I couldn&#8217;t care less. I want to teach you, and you have to know this &#8230;&#8221;</p>
<p>I blew a gasp, but not before the student knew what I was getting at. My intention wasn&#8217;t to play defense. With summer school fast approaching, I had enough parents and students wondering why <em>I </em>failed <em>them, </em>even as I begged them for their works all year. But of course it&#8217;s my fault because that&#8217;s the cage I created for myself. The woulda / shoulda / couldas never let my didn&#8217;ts let loose of me. I already reflect on the tension between me as teacher and me as activist. I already listen too much, too early, too often and think I&#8217;m listening too little, too late, too insignificantly, and / or don&#8217;t express it well enough.</p>
<p>The rage on my face isn&#8217;t simply systemic. It&#8217;s knowing that, without a handful of us speaking up about what we do, our jobs can be boiled down to a few talking points that sell books for everyone <em>but</em> us.</p>
<p>I listened to the students for a few more minutes before making my way out, hoping to bottle up the magic and raw wisdom these young adults had to share with me. I walked down the hallway thinking about how I might write this piece to you, but not before I noticed him follow me down the hall. When I noticed him follow, he scurried away.</p>
<p>Maybe he knows more about me and the rest of us than we do.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com/despite-all-my-rage/">Despite All My Rage</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="http://thejosevilson.com">The Jose Vilson</a>.</p>
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